Reader question: Q1P purchase, Vista or XP Tablet?

Russ dropped us note and asked us to help with his Q1P purchase decision. Since you can currently purchase the Q1P with XP Tablet Edition 2005 or with Vista, he’s wondering which he should get. His specific question here might shed some light:

"I am looking to really utilize the handwriting features for meeting notes, etc… I was wondering how well the handwriting works in vista versus XP tablet edition and i was curious as to which version you would purchase in regards to vista or tablet edition? Are there any major differences in operating capabilites, handwriting recognition, etc… that would make you lean one way or another? I really liked the vista origami experience but could live without if the handwriting in a tablet form was not as good in vista."

Since the hardware is the same on both versions, we can effectively just look at the software. Now that there’s a solution to the HID driver issue for the Samsung Q1 series of UMPC, I’d lean towards the Vista offering for a few reasons.

1. With the HID driver, the Q1P is now treated as a true Tablet PC by the OS, so you can leverage all of the built-in Tablet features of Vista.2. Unlike the XP version, Vista will learn how to better recognize your handwriting over time and it does this automatically if you configure it so. You can also train it if you want to spend the time; something I believe is well worth it. XP will never learn how you write.3. Vista offers one feature that could partially or fully offset any performance issues you might expect from running the newer OS on limited hardware: ReadyBoost. For a minimal investment, you can add a 1GB USB flash drive to the Q1P and get the boost; not so with XP.

Russ, I think there are more reasons that would lead me to Vista, but these are my main three, especially since your main concern was on the handwriting and inking experience. I’ll leave it up to the readers to point out any flaws in my logic and also to provide their opinions. Good luck on the purchase and let us know what you decide!